ISLAMABAD
Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar has made it clear that the people should fully vaccinate themselves against COVID-19 because it is the only answer to reduce the risk of the spread of new variant Omicron.
Briefing the media at National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Wednesday, he warned that the cases of Omicron witnessed an increase in the country. He said the Covid cases increased to 1.8 percent after remaining 0.7 percent for several weeks. The Minister said the people should continue to observe SOPs and avoid visiting crowded places.
According to data from the NCOC, at least 898 cases in the past 24 hours pushed the positivity ratio to 1.80%. The data showed that during the last 24 hours, five deaths were reported, while 652 patients are in critical conditions.
In his remarks, Special Assistant on National Health Services Dr. Faisal Sultan clarified that the current anti-Covid vaccines provide protection to the people against severe disease from the new variant. He stressed that vaccination is important to save our healthcare system from pressure.
Amid a sharp rise in the COVID-19 cases across Pakistan, Faisal warned people to not take Omicron “lightly” as hospitalisation will increase in the next one to two weeks. The country’s top health official advised the public to follow the COVID-19 SOPs and get vaccinated at the earliest.
“It’s still a bit early to draw conclusions since it takes 1-2 weeks for hospitalisations to go up. Also, let us see how the virus behaves regarding virulence”, Dr Sultan said when asked as to why hospitalisations were not going up in Karachi despite an increase in the number of Covid-19 cases due to the spread of the Omicron variant.
Hospitalisations remained negligible and there were hardly any patients under treatment at major public and private health facilities in Karachi despite the fact the COVID-19 positivity touched 8.91% in the city, where 339 more people were tested positive with over 50% people infected with the Omicron variant.
